The present invention relates to an apparatus for packaging cut loose leaf material such as, for example tobacco, and particularly relates to a method for fabricating a package and packaging cut loose leaf tobacco in the package using an arbor type machine.
In the packaging of cut loose-leaf tobacco for either roll your own cigarettes or for use as pipe tobacco, it has been common to use commercially available machines which are particularly utilized for the packing of tea bags. These machines include a rotary dispensing drum having rows of circumferentially spaced pockets into which the tobacco flows by gravity through outlets at the bottom of an overhead feed hopper. The tobacco is deposited in piles from the pockets on a web of packaging material which travels in contact with the peripheral of the rotary dispensing drum. The lower portion of the hopper containing the outlets for feeding the rotary dispensing drum is moveable in relation to the drum therefore varying the dispensing area of the outlets.
In the packaging art there are a number of references which teach the packaging of loosely cut or pulverized materials from a hopper into a package. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,398 to Larson et al teaches an apparatus and method of feeding pulverized material from a hopper into a package formed thereby as well as the compressing and/or plunging means for inserting the pulverized material into the package. U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,349 teaches machinery and a method for packaging material such as coffee and includes the use of a hopper from which coffee is directed to the package being formed. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,784 teaches a package comprising an inner wrap and an outer wrap with a folded in structure. None of these references teach the use of a continuously fed high speed packaging and wrapping machine for loose leaf products.